IX. the MEDIAN DIALECTS of KASHAN Local Ulama and Officials Caused Its Temporary Closure
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38 KASHAN VIII.-IX. THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF KASHAN local ulama and officials caused its temporary closure. later referred to the case's outcome as a disgrace for Iran's The school was reopened soon after on the order of Mirza judicial system (Diimgiini and Mo'meni, p. 209) The affair J:lasan Khan Wotuq-al-Dawla, the prime minister, presum was part of a series of assassinations of secular intellectu ably in response to an appeal from <Abd-al-Baha' (q. v.), the als (e.g., AQ.mad Kasravi, q.v.) and leading political figures Bahai leader in exile in Palestine. The Tehran ministry offi committed by the Feda'iiin, the most daring of which was cials required that the state program be strictly followed that of Prime Minister i:l1lji-<Ali Razmiira (Dllmgiini and (Nateq, fols. 24-29). Mo'meni, pp. 207-10; Vahman, pp. 186-200; Mohajer), for W~dat-e B~ar enjoyed a reputation for being Kashan' s which the assassins received little or no punishment. Under leading school, especially in the areas of Persian litera the Islamic Republic, many of the remaining, mostly rural, ture and Arabic. In contrast to Kashan's often unforgiving Bahais in the Kashan region were forced out of their com class and communal divisions, the school accommodated munities. Under increasing pressure from the state and the students of all religious and class backgrounds and pro local population, many became refugees in the West. vided a relatively cordial environment. A lasting sense of Bibliography: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and camaraderie was achieved among the students, although Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, on occasion children of influential families were favored. 1844-1850, Ithaca, N.Y., 1989. Mehrdad Amanat, The school also introduced such novelties as a football "Negotiating Identities: Iranian Jews, Muslims. and team and a theater group used for fundraising purposes. Baha'is in the Memoirs of Rayhan Rayhani (1859- The Bahai girls' school was not established until 1921. 1939)," Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Ange In the beginning, girls who attended the school were the les, 2006. Mousa Amanat, Bahii'ian-e Kasan, ed. Noura subject of hostile remarks by some conservatives. Gradu Samimi, forthcoming. <Abd-al-J:losayn Ayati Av1lra, ally, the education of girls became more accepted, if not al-Kawakeb al-dorriyafi ma'a1er al-Bahii'iya, 2 vols., routine, under Pahlavi rule. The teachers were strictly Tehran, 1923. Ne<mat-Alliih t>okll'i Bayd1l'i, Tadkera chosen from among women, mostly from educated Bahai ye fo'ara'-e qarn-e awwal-e Baha'i, 4 vols., Tehran, families. 1970-72. J:losayn Partow Bayza'i, Tiirik-e varzeJhii-ye By the 1930s, the Bahai schools' eminence was over bastani-e Iran, Tehran, 1958. MoQ.ammad-Taqi Diimgani shadowed by a better financed and more professional, and B1lqer Mo'meni, Jama-ye iiluda dar iiftiib, Frank state-run school system. In 1934, Kashan'S Bahai schools furt, 2003. <Abd-al-J:lamid E§raq ,S:avari, Asriir al-iiJiir were closed down on the order of the Ministry of Edu Tehran, 1973. Idem, Tiirik-e amri-e Hamadiin, ed. Vahid cation as part of an indiscriminate decision to close all Rafati, Hofheim, 2004, pp. 37-46, 184-97 Asad-Allllh of Iran's Bahai schools, supposedly due to the Bahais' Fiiiel Miizandar1lni, Ketilb iohur aHiaqq, Hofheim, refusal to abandon observance of Bahai holidays, but also 2008. MoQ.ammad-<AJi Gailari, Kiiferiit wa asniid-e as a move to maintain the state's monopoly on education Mol;iammad-'Ali Gaffiiri, ed. Man!iura Ettel,ladiya (Shahvar, pp. 107-38). (Ne:µ.m Mafi), Tehran, 1982. i:11lji Mirza Jiini Kii§iini, Post-World War II period. The post-World War II period Ketlib noqfat al-kiif, ed. Edward G. Browne as Kitiib saw an increasing trend towards immigration to Tehran Nuqtatu'l-Kiif, London and Leiden, 1910. Al,lmad Kas among Kashan's Bahais, especially among the well-to-do, ravi, Tiirik-e maJruta-ye /riin, 3 vols., Tehran, 1940. as a part of Iran's economic centralization. Life in Teh Na!ier Mohlljer, "Kiirdajin kardan-e Doktor Berjis," ran was more anonymous and relatively immune from the Biirlin, nos. 19-20, 2007-2008. J:lasan Narllqi, Tiirik-e daily harassments and insults that Bahais could expect in ejtemii'i-e KliSiin, Tehran, 1986. NAteq E!ifahiini, Tiirik-e Kashan. Nevertheless, opposition to Bahais became more ·amriya-ye KiifiJn wa qorii'-e tawiibe' MS no. 2016D, fierce and organized. In Jow§aqan (q.v.) around 1949, the Iranian National Baha'i Manuscript Collection. Mol,lam anti-Bahai activities of a certain Shaikh <Afi-Akbar led to mad Sadr HiiAemi, Tiirik-e jara'ed wa majalliit-e /riin, his humiliation by a Bahai landowner, Arbab Fail-Alliih 4 vols., Isfahan, 1948-53. Soli Shahvar, The Forgotten RuQ.ani Jow§aqani, who confined him in his stable. The Schools: The Baha'is and Modern Education in Iran, incident led to riots and the exile of Arbab FaZl-Alliih 1899-1934, London, 2009. Y. Shofet, Kiiterlit-e Hiiklim from Jow§aqan and may have led to a conspiracy for the Yedidyii Sofet, Los Angeles, 2000. Mol,lammad-Mahdi murder of a prominent Kashan Bahai (personal correspon ~arif KHiini, Wiiqe'iit-e ettefaqiya dar ruzgiir ed. dence with Mrs. Romman Paymani). In February 1950, Man!iura Ettel,ladiya (Ne~iim MAfi), 3 vols., Tehran, Solayman Berjis, a physician practicing in Kashan, was 1983. Fereydun Vahman, Yalcyad o J(l$t siil mobiireza bii called on the pretext of visiting a critically ill patient and ii'in-e Baha'i, Darmstadt, 2009. was stabbed to death by a group of four Fed1l'iiin-e Esliim (MEHRDAD AMANAT) (q.v.) enthusiasts as he was approaching the destination. Some conspirators even confessed their involvement to the authorities, calling it part of their "religious duties." Nonetheless, they were eventually acquitted by a court ix. THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF KASHAN in Tehran under pressure from both the Feda'iiin network and notable supporters such as Ayatollah Sayyed Abu'l This sub-entry is divided into two sections: Qiisem Ka§iini, who enjoyed much leverage in Iran's vola (1) Rural Riji dialects. tile political environment of the time. Kashan' s prosecutor (2) Urban Jewish dialect. KASHAN IX. THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF KASHAN (1) RURAL RAJI DIALECTS 39 (1) Rural Raji Dialects In spite of the random distribution of the Raji- and Persian-speaking settlements, and the profound influ Although the city of Kashan itself is now entirely Per ence of Persian on the Riji dialects, there is no language sophonic (see part 2, below), many of the settlements in continuum between the two, in the way that, for instance, its proximity have preserved their native Central dialects Caspian blends into Persian as one moves south from (q.v.). The Central dialects of Kashan, which we call here central Alborz onto the plateau. The dialect discontinu the Kashan dialect~ as a whole, are often called Ra(ye)ji ity becomes evident when we compare adjoining villages, or Dei (Debi) by their speakers (Yarshater, 1985; idem, such as Riji-speaking &onb and Persian-speaking Lati,or 1989). The Raji-speaking villages and townships associ (south of Kashan city) and Riji-speaking Vandlida and ated historically with Kashan extend as far as Delijan in Persian-speaking &osraviibad (south of Meyma), respec the west, Meyma in the southwest, and Natanz in the south, tively in the north and the south of Kashan linguistic prov although these mentioned localities now form administra ince. The following comparative data (from Purrifil:li et al., tive districts independent from Kashan within the prov IV, 245-46; idem, II, pp. 189-90) demonstrates the point ince oflsfahan. In fact, the current administrative divisions at hand. For "snow," "boy," "dog" we have Lati,ori and serve no good frame of reference for delineating dialects of &osravabidi barf, pesar, sag, &onbi viifr pirlJ, espa, and what has been called the Kashani subgroup of the Central Vandada>i var/, pUr kuve; sentences: Lati,ori, &osr. to-rii dialects (see also ISFAHAN xxi). One of the aims of this did-am, &onbi to-m be-di, Vandida>i to-m bi-di "I saw article is to improve isoglottic definition of the Kashani you"· Lati,ori u rafte bu nil bexarra, &osr. un rafte bud nun group. bexere, &onbi nii bolta bu na bereyin, Vandida>i un bilta In the past few decades, rural Kashan has rapidly been bo nun birinu "he had gone to buy bread." Accordingly, we shifting to Persian. Most villages have already been partly may make the following observations. ( 1) The two Persian or entirely persianized, and practically all Raji speakers varieties, though from comparatively remote villages, are are bilingual (see Borjian, 2009). A distribution of the practically identical with one another and to the colloquial Raji-speaking places is known from a survey conducted Persian of Tehran. This suggests a fairly recent language in the 1970s (Purrifil:ii et al.) for individual rural districts shift to Persian. (2) The Persian varieties contrast sharply of Isfahan P!'ovince. The data pertaining to Kashan, cal with the Riji dialects in vocabulary, morphosyntax, and culated and summarized in Table 1, shows that 38 of the historical phonology. (3) The Raji dialects are essentially total 96, or 40 percent, of the settlements had native Raji similar in morphology and syntax; for instance, past tran speakers. In Kavirat, a garmsir sub-district centered at sitive verbs show ergative construction (-m bedi), and the Abuzaydabad, all nine settlements spoke Raji, whereas past participle has a modal prefix (bolbi-lta).